Exclusive: Nashville actor Sam Palladio hopes Scarlett and Gunnar ‘will in one way or another come back together’

With Nashville season 2 now over and a third series confirmed, what on earth are we supposed to do with ourselves on Thursday nights in the mean time?

Metro caught up with actor Sam Palladio who stars as hunky Gunnar Scott in the ABC musical drama.

Despite the southern drawl we’re all use to hearing on screen, the 27-year-old is actually British. Growing up in Cornwall, he relocated to Nashville two years ago for the show. Even already knowing this, the accent still caught us off guard.

‘It’s fun! Everyone thinks I’m American so when I end up chatting to fans around the town [in my British accent] there are normally some confused looks,’ he chuckles.

Sam Palladio has featured on all four Nashville soundtracks to-date (Picture: Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images)

A major element of the show is of course the music, which Palladio features on heavily.

When pushed to choose, he names If I Didn’t Know Better, his haunting season one duet with co-star Clare Bowen, who plays Scarlett O’Connor, as his favourite song to-date.

‘That’s always going to have a special place. It was the song that closed the original pilot episode and opened a lot of doors to us so I owe a lot to that song and John Paul White of the Civil Wars who wrote it.

‘There are just so many great songs and talented songwriters that the show uses.’

Being unashamedly Team Juliette here at Metro, we were keen to find out where his thoughts on that subject lay.

‘Well Gunnar’s kind of in the middle of everything so he’s not really picked a side yet,’ he laughs.

‘I’ve only worked with Connie [Britton, who plays Rayna] for a couple of episodes and Hayden [Panettiere] – I have to say – I was a huge fan of her way back in the Heroes days.

Country divas Rayna James and Juliette Barnes (Picture: ABC)

‘It will be interesting if Gunnar ends up writing some more tracks for Juliette this season so I’ll probably end up being Team Juliette.’

The only potential pitfall of that is La Barnes seems to have a tendency of sleeping with most of the people she works with. Is Gunnar ready for that?

‘That is true! I’ve got to have my wits about me! I think if they make her sleep with any more of the characters in the cast that it will be a bit farcical so hopefully she has learnt her lesson!’

And what of his relationship with Scarlett? We know he’s with Zoe now, but she’s about to head off on tour with Juliette and in the last end of season finale, Scarlett was all set to leave and Gunnar was like, ‘stay’. What’s up with that?

Scarlett and Zoe – the many loves of Gunnar (Picture: ABC)

‘I think the two characters have had a deep connection that music is the catalyst of, so no matter what happens in their personal lives, when they come together and sing, that spark gets ignited again.

‘We’re start working on series three this week – they haven’t released any scripts yet so I’m really interested to see where we pick up after that scene.

‘The fans love the two characters together and I’m sure that they will in one way or another come back together at least as musical partners. Whether it’s anything more than that, we can leave that to the fans to speculate.’

Scarlett and Gunnar forever (Picture: ABC)

Gunnar is getting a lot of success from his songwriting both in terms of recognition and financially. Why’s he so frustrated then that it’s not working as a performer?

‘I think he’s an ambitious guy. He’s in a business that’s really cutthroat and it’s hard to make it.

‘He’s getting some success as a songwriter and that’s brilliant, but he just needs a lucky break which he’s getting closer to. From an audience point of view, I think that people like Gunnar because he’s a bit of an underdog, he never quite hits the mark.

‘People like that, you see the humanity in the character as opposed to one of the big divas like Juliette or Rayna who maybe are not as relatable because the circumstances are so big – being big stars of country music.

A lot of songwriters hit me up on Twitter saying “I’m a struggling to make it, how do you do it, can you give me any advice?” So I think people see pieces of Gunnar in themselves, he’s a great character to play.

What is your relationship like with the cast?

‘It’s a great group of people and a lot of us write music and perform together. I do shows with Chaley Rose (Zoe) and we perform at the Grand Ole Opry together.

‘Myself and Chris Carmack (Will) are writing some music together, I think we’re going to try doing a side project – a little live band.’

Our fave Nashville bromance (Picture: ABC)

Does that mean we’ll be getting to hear a Sam Palladio album any time soon?

‘Absolutely! Back when we first started [the show] I had a lot of opportunities to rush and just put out some music, but this is a labour of love and I’m excited to finally let people hear it. For me it has got to sound right and I am very conscious of that: it takes a little time sometimes.’

So what kind of sound can we expect?

‘I would say my sound is indie-folk-rock – folk music that I love harping back to the 70s and that classic kind of songwriting. I want to create a record that has a timelessness to it.

Multi-talented (Picture: Rick Diamond/Getty Images for St. Jude)

‘I play drums and I’ve always had an interest in creating interesting rhythms and time signatures so hopefully it will be a combination of all those kinds of things.’

In the meantime, Palladio currently features on the Nashville Season 2: Volume 2 soundtrack and on the track Without You with Bowen on the upcoming Nashville Outlaws: A Tribute To Motley Crue.

Earlier this year saw many of the Nashville cast take to the road for some live tour dates. UK fans hoping to similar here may have a bit of a wait however.

‘I really hope so. As of now we’re going into production which will take us up to Christmas. I would think it would really be next summer if we were to get out there and do it properly.

‘I’d love to do it because there’s a real appetite for it which was evident when I played at the Borderline [in London recently].

Hands up who wants a Nashville UK tour (Picture: Rick Diamond/Getty Images for St. Jude)

‘It was fantastic because it was the first time that I had done a show in London since moving away to the States.

‘The last show I played before that was to about eight people at some King’s Cross music venue and this was coming back to 400 screaming Nashville fans, it was really cool.’

The Nashville Season Two: Part Two soundtrack is out now. Nashville Outlaws: A Tribute To Motley Crue is released August 18.